Nina Pavan 09:05, January 29, 2023

80 years ago, in Marseille, 1,600 people from the Saint-Jean district were deported to death camps.

A very little known story, so this year, the municipality of the Marseille city created a memorial route on the Old Port, a few meters from this district, totally destroyed by the German authorities.

It is nicknamed the "forgotten roundup" of the Second World War.

80 years ago, 1,600 people were deported from Marseille to the camps of Fréjus, Compiègne and the death camps in Germany.

This is followed by the destruction of an entire district, just behind the Old Port.

A very little known story, so this year, the City of Marseille has created a real memorial journey.

"This district risked being the place where the resistance fighters were hidden"

On the Old Port, next to the fishermen's stalls, large panels with black and white texts and images have appeared.

Passing through Marseille, Yvonne discovered the story of January 1943. "It's really impressive. It's the voluntary destruction of a district, of a population. It's quite shocking."

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The fate of the 20,000 expelled and 1,600 deportees is hardly known because the story was mainly written in Paris.

“The historians who are interested in this story are locals and they are not Parisians,” explains historian Renée Dray-Bensoussan, president of the Association for Research and Teaching of the Shoah.

She has spent her life promoting the history of the Saint-Jean district.

"Hitler was wary of the Vichy regime in terms of the maintenance of the city, because it has a reputation for rebels, so this district risked being the place where we hid the resistants."

© Nina Pavan / EUROPE 1

This Sunday is unveiled the first stele of a long memorial journey so that the roundup of the Old Port is finally inscribed in national history.

The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, accompanied by the Minister of Action and Public Accounts Gabriel Attal, will be present to launch the commemorations.